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Hi! I'm Kiersten, a thirty-something from Maine who accomplished my major life goal of running a marathon on all seven continents. Now I'm onto my next big project- being a Mom! Join me as I run, bike, swim, eat, and laugh my way through life.

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Trails to Ale 10k

Now that I have finished my 7 continent goal, I finally am able to try out all the fun local races that I've been wanting to do for years! This Sunday, that meant the Trails to Ale 10k. The race is a benefit for Portland Trails, which builds and maintains great trails all over Portland.

I was psyched to finally get to run this race, and even more excited to run it as party of a team. I ran with a great group of people from nursing school. Since we are all going into medical professions, we made a pun with a medical term and called ourselves Tachy Cardio.

team Tachy Cardio

I had been hoping when I signed up mid summer that it would be a perfect, crisp fall day. Instead, when I woke up it was humid and raining. It started to clear as I walked to the race. By race time it was sunny, but still humid. Whomp.

My focus this fall has been school, not running, so I didn't have a major goal. I was just hoping to come in under 9 minute/miles. The race starts on top of Munjoy Hill, so the first mile and half had a lot of downhill. My legs weren't loving the combination of downhill and asphalt. Luckily just past mile 2, the course turns onto back bay trail, which is dirt. Despite the crazy head wind in places, I really enjoyed the 3 miles around back cove.

Although we had all decided to run our own races, my friend Rose and I ended up running almost the same pace and so we stuck together for most of the race. It was really nice to have someone to chat with. It made the time go so much faster!

Just after mile five, the course crosses a bridge and then loops off on a paved extension of the trail. The combination of the concrete, an uphill, and my pace hit me. My legs felt like absolute lead. I told myself I had less than a mile to go and tried to push on to the finish.

I finished in 53:03, an 8:36 pace. Goal met! It was awesome to come across that finish and have most of my team there to high five me!

It was also awesome to head up the hill after the finish and get Portland Pie pizza and beer! Although it felt like summer, I decided that based on the date it was time to have my first Shipyard pumpkin head of the season! It was so good, I had one more. Nothing like beer at 10 on Sunday!

We hung around for quite awhile, enjoying our ale and chatting. Making great runner friends is a nice fringe benefit of nursing school!